Editor,
Through your esteemed daily I wish to draw attention to the growing difficulties faced by teachers in our elementary schools.
Some years ago, I attended a training programme on the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system. The idea behind it was good — to look at every child’s overall growth, not just marks. But in practice, it has become very hard to manage.
Teachers are asked to observe each student carefully, keep daily records, and prepare many reports. All this work comes on top of regular classes, homework correction, lesson planning, and test checking. Most schools in Upper Primary Section have no clerk to help, so teachers have to do everything themselves.
In upper primary schools, many teachers have to take five or six classes a day. Some are also given extra official work like Booth Level Officer (BLO) duty or other government assignments. People often come to school for various verifications and documents, disturbing the teaching time. By the end of the day, teachers are exhausted.
Nowadays, another problem has appeared — online training. Teachers are told to attend one-hour sessions during school hours, which usually clash with class timings. If they join the training, the class remains unattended; if they take the class, they are marked absent from the training. This situation puts teachers in a difficult position.
It would be better if such trainings were held during their free periods or vacations. Even better, if the training videos were uploaded on YouTube or an official education portal, teachers could watch them later at their own convenience. That way, learning would continue without disturbing classes.
I still remember one CCE training where the resource person, a primary school teacher, said something that I can never forget. He told us that he was the only teacher in his school, handling all five classes from Class I to Class V. When I asked who looked after his school while he attended the training, he replied quietly, “I have declared a school holiday until I finish this training.”
That simple reply says everything. How can one teacher manage five classes, keep all the records, attend trainings, and still maintain quality in teaching? This is the real picture in many schools, especially in rural and remote areas of Meghalaya.
Education policies like CCE and NEP 2020 sound good on paper, but they can succeed only when teachers are given proper support. We need more teachers in schools, clerical help for record-keeping, and fewer non-teaching duties.
Teachers are not just record keepers. They are guides and mentors who shape young minds. If they spend most of their time doing paperwork and official jobs, how will they find time to teach with heart and joy?
I hope the authorities will look into this matter seriously and make practical changes to reduce the workload of teachers so that they can do what they love most — teach children.
Yours etc.,
Jairaj Chhetry
Via email
Impending housing crisis
Editor,
Way back in 1798 when Thomas Robert Malthus proposed the theory that population grows exponentially (geometric progression) while food production increases only linearly (arithmetic progression), policy makers and the academic world stood up and took notice. The theory seemed viable and the threat looked real back then. Fast forward 227 years, the doomsday scenario that Malthus propounded has not occurred and there seems to be no threat of it occurring in the near future. Improvement in crop yield through technological advancement has made sure that there is abundant food supply globally even though population has grown rapidly and unabated post-World War II; Yield Statistics has also made sure that food production is monitored closely ensuring that food shortages that might occur due to low yield are taken care of on time.
The Malthusian theory I feel is perhaps applicable to the global housing sector. The number of households has increased rapidly over the last 20 years while the abilities of families to purchase or build new houses has declined rapidly due to wealth gap, income gap, income stagnation and inflated land and house prices driven by imbalances in supply and demand and speculative investment. Rent has gone through the roof and owning a house for many families has now become just a distant dream.
A few days ago, I saw a video of the cage homes in Hong Kong; people living in tiny little spaces that don’t come cheap speaks volumes of the real crisis in the global housing sector. Coming to our own state and community, there used to be a time when “A sense of community” used to be a hallmark of our society. Most Landlord-Tenant relationship used to be defined by friendliness which sometimes border on familial ties and buying land and building a new house was still manageable even for low-income families. Now in most localities, rent has gone through the roof and owning a house is just a distant dream even for middle and high- income families and the same factors mentioned earlier that are responsible for the global housing crisis are the same factors that are causing the housing crisis in our state. The time for affirmative action on the part of our policy makers is now, otherwise, the time is not far away when cage houses will start to appear in our own city and state.
Yours etc.,
Gary Marbaniang,
Via email
Living between two realities – the real and surreal
Editor,
The editorial “Chronicles of Despair” ST October 11, 2025 made interesting reading. I doubt very much that the Police Department can ever get to the root of this mysterious murderer. Pranshon Jala, President, Ka Sengbah Nongshad Nongkhein in his interview to U Nongsain Hima on October 21, 2023 stated that “haduh mynta dang don kiba ri Thlen namar u hiar pateng na kiba rhah spah jubor.” Translated it means, “Till date there are people who harbour and nurture U Thlen because he is a descendant of those who crave for wealth.” In Nongsain Hima of October 11, 2025, he mentions, “lada shah pyniap ha u menshohnoh kan shem shitom ban lap ia ki sakhi.” (If one has been murdered by a mysterious murderer, it is difficult to find evidence). However, the Nongshohnoh does not dare to catch hold the essence of humanity or spirit that is unrelenting (Eh Rngiew) but that which is relenting (Jem Rngiew) easily falls prey to this mysterious murderer. U Thlen is a relentless creature and Mrs Rafy in her book “Folk Tales of Khasi,” written way back in August 10, 1918 and digitized by the Internet Archives in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation which is accessible at rarebooksocietyofindia.org beautifully put it this way about U Thlen “As his devotees increased, he reproduced himself mysteriously, so that in place of one Thlen living in a cave(Law Suidnoh, Laitryngew, Hima Sohra) where everybody knew him to be, there arose many Thlens, living concealed in the houses of the Nongshohnohs who, to preserve their own safety and goodwill of U Thlen, have become men hunters and murderers, of whom the Khasis live in deadly fear to this day.” Though folk tales are not real in the historical or empirical sense, they are profoundly real in how they encode cultural truths, moral frameworks and collective memory.
Yours etc;
VK Lyngdoh,
Via email
